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Terrorist attack response exercise held in London and York

A large-scales terrorist incident response exercise has been held in London and York over two days to test the response of the emergency services and government to a major terrorist incident.

Exercise Spring Resolve was planned and co-ordinated by the Home Office, working closely with partners from British Transport Police, Metropolitan Police, North Yorkshire Police, Counter Terrorism Policing North-East, London Fire Brigade, London Ambulance Service, North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service and Yorkshire Ambulance Service.

The exercise aimed to to test the collective emergency services response to a series of no-notice violent attacks across multiple regions, effective multi-agency command and control arrangements to stop the attacks, save lives and undertake effective and timely consequence management and recovery.

The exercise was part of the regular counter-terrorism testing and exercise programme which takes place across the UK. In London, the exercise involved a mixture of live and notional play and included multiple attacks in rapid succession, on the transport network and other publicly accessible locations.

In York, the scenario incorporated a further no-notice attack at a publicly accessible location close to the city centre.

The exercise tested communication flows from attack scenes, through strategic command centres and directly into central government. COBR meetings were held on both days, and government ministers and senior officials were also involved.

Security Minister, Tom Tugendhat, said: "The first duty of government is to protect the British people. Exercises like Spring Resolve are critical to ensure all agencies and departments are prepared for any type of attack.

"I would like to thank all our frontline services for their diligent and brave work to protect and safeguard our country and people in the face of complex threats."

Strategic exercise lead for North Yorkshire Police, Superintendent Jason Dickson said: "This was a welcome opportunity for the emergency services in North Yorkshire to take place in a national CT exercise. It provided an opportunity to test our joint working in dealing with a no-notice violent attack.

"We tested the strategic prioritisation and decision-making for the safe and effective deployment of specialist and non-specialist resources to scenes and the early consideration of recovery measures."

Image by Pete from Pixabay

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